Halloween

Saturday night we were invited by our new friends to come along to a Halloween Festival that was being held near our village at a park called Three Kings Park.  It is a huge parkland with a Polo Club where Marcus trains for Rugby, a horse riding club, a huge open park full of free roaming animals and 3 huge Buddhist temples.  It was at the site of these temples that this festival or fete was.  It was mostly full of expat families from the international schools and a few Thai families as well.  All the kids (and some of the adults) got dressed up in their Halloween costumes and there were pony rides, fire twirlers, medieval knights duelling, a huge jumping castle, merry go rounds and bumper cars.  There were other games and activities aimed more towards the older kids and there was a ghost tour which our friend Karen was acting in as a wicked witch scaring people as they walked in the dark through the park.  The Temples were beautiful, the 2 smaller ones were all lit up from the outside and in the night they just looked amazing.  Apparently the man who owns the country club owns the whole parkland and surrounding housing estates.  It is huge.  The park is open to visitors most days so we plan to take the kids back to have a play in the grass and see the animals another time when the weather is nice.  Lillie spent her whole evening running around in her little lady bug costume, she refused to get into her pram and didn't want to be carried she just wanted to run.  I reckon she ran around for over 2 hours.  I made a deal with Marcus that if we were to go to the fete he would have to be the one in charge of Lillie and I would take care of Judd.  Marcus has way more patience for her stubbornness than I do, I just get frustrated with having to follow her around all day.  Judd really enjoyed the fete, he dressed up as a crocodile (actually a green dragon but he wanted to call it a crocodile) and he got to have his very first pony ride and he looked so little sitting up on that horse.  Thankfully he got to ride the bigger more docile horse as the smaller pony was playing up and getting frisky.  Judd also went on the dodgem cars over and over again and he liked the merry go round but I think it went too slow for him.  I wanted to let him go on the jumping castle but it was full of bigger school kids and he would just end up getting jumped on.  It was a good night though and I am glad we went.  I tried to dress up as a witch but the witches hat I bought was too small for my head.

I have noticed lately that the kids are different over here, especially the expats kids that go to the International schools.  They are quite spoilt and naughty.  I have a real problem with parents who don't pull their kids into line when they are being rude or bullying another kid.  There is a little half Thai half Italian boy at our village and his dad owns the restaurant and he is only 5 but he is the naughtiest little shit.  One afternoon while we were in the pool Judd asked him if he would play with him and the little boy got a mouthful of water and spat it right into Judd's face.  I was furious and so close to telling him and his parents what a right shit he is. 
But not all the Thai kids here are like that, Judd has made friends with an older Thai boy who helps him feed the fish and turtles in the lake and plays with him in the play ground.  Yesterday we all went up to the park and kicked the footy and soccer ball around and some of the other kids joined in and it was really nice watching them all play together.  Marcus ended up playing with the kids long after I went home to feed and bath Lillie and then Judd walked in the door by himself I asked him if he told daddy that he was going home and he said " No I just told the boy (his thai friend) to walk me home".  How cute, but I didn't go and tell Marcus that Judd was with me as he obviously wasn't watching Judd closely while at the park and I wanted him to stress a little when he finally realised that Judd was gone.  It didn't work though.  Men just don't watch kids like the mothers do.

Judd seems to be making friends at his kindergarten too.  He had a bit of trouble the first week as they serve the kids lunch everyday and Judd is a fussy eater and he didn't want to eat their food.  So now I have to provide a sandwich just in case he doesn't eat. They also tried to give him cold milk which he spat out as he only likes warm milk and then they tried to give him chocolate milk which he spat out again as he has never had chocolate milk or anything sweet like that before.  I couldn't believe they give the kids chocolate milk, it is just full of sugar and junk.  I now also provide his own bottle of milk and I found it strange that I had to stipulate that it needs to be kept in the fridge and then warmed up in the microwave before they give it to him because the first time I sent him to school with milk they didn't even put it in the fridge and they just gave it to him at room temperature.  I had to quickly make sure that they know to keep it cold as it is fresh milk and he will get sick.  The Thais just don't get it as they all drink the UHT milk.  Yuck.

It is all these small little differences that add up at the end of the week and can really wear me down.  Having to explain the simplest of things is so tiresome.  And I cant show my annoyance as it is very uncool to raise ones voice or show you are angry to a Thai, they do not outwardly show their emotions like we do and if annoyed they more than likely will not even tell anyone about it.
This is a hard thing for me to learn because if I am pissed off I don't have a problem telling the person or people about it and lately I get pissed off very easily.  Don't really know why but I guess it has something to do with constantly having to repeat myself to the kids over and over the same things as neither of them listen to me anymore.  Then I have to speak in baby words and repeat everything to the nanny as she doesn't speak much English either.  So I spend my days speaking babyish and can't have a real conversation until Marcus gets home but then he doesn't want to talk much either as he is tired or has work to do as well.  So it can be a bit mind numbing sometimes.

On a brighter note the weather has really cooled off now.  It is almost cool today, the Thais are all rugged up like its 5 degrees but for me its perfect.  Cool enough to leave the air cons off and sit comfortably without sweating.  The humidity has dropped heaps as it is now entering Thai winter.  They tell me that the weather is perfect from around now until January before it starts heating up for spring and summer.  The seasons don't work over here like they do back in Melbourne so its quite difficult to tell what time of year it is.  For me it is just different stages of hot. 

This Friday Marcus and I are going to drive to Bangkok to visit the Australian Embassy to get some papers authorized for his work permit.  I hope to leave the kids with the nanny and just have a day out with Marcus and actually try and have a conversation without being interrupted all the time.  Should be a nice day trip if we don't get lost.